Last night (11/4/15) as my family and I were traveling to my grandparents, we saw around 3-4 shooting stars and I found myself in awe of my Creator. Each shooting star brought more excitement, praise, and anticipation to see if there would be another one- looking out the window and turning my head back and forth from window to window like a dog trying to follow the toy his owner has in their hand. Today as I was reflecting on the gloriousness of last night I thought about what a shooting star is…in simple words it's a ball of burning debris. So I paused and thought about how excited I get for a piece of the Lord's creation that isn't living, and extremely temporary. By no means, am I trying to belittle His creation, because it's amazing…the point I'm trying to make is the backwardness of how excited we get over a non-living piece of creation, that is so temporary, and often treat the creation He made in His image (Genesis 1:27) horribly. Think about it a minute and let that sink in.
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| image from google |
So here's my proposition, let's think about the excitement we get from shooting stars, different natural wonders, weather, things in nature, animals and more and think of each other. We, the human race, have been made in the image of God, have a soul, and are made to be relational. We are relational with one another and the God of the universe wants a personal, authentic, and genuine relationship with us. We were made for relationships, yet it seems we are always cutting one another down instead of building up. We are quick to judge and see the differences, and we tend to look at differences as a negative thing, when differences is what makes us beautiful. Think about it… if we were all the same, or virtually the same, we'd be soooo boring. Think about all the popular dystopian society books/movies and that is exactly the cycle that the protagonists are trying to break.
The Golden Rule, tells us basically to treat others how we want to be treated (Matthew 7:12). The greatest commandments are also to love the Lord, and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40). We could get into the whole discussion of who you're neighbor is, but simply love those that are hard to love, and those who are easy to love, actually love them. The big thing is to love people, care about others. We tear down those who are different and are often jealous or trying to beat out those similar to us. We should stop both of those and look for the good qualities in all. That's one thing I like to focus on while teaching, telling my students what they are good at, even when they don't think anything is going for them, find one thing and build them up, because everyone has special skills or qualities, and sometimes they just have to be told what it is, and other times it has to be discovered. But I say let's live in a world where we genuinely lift each other up without a hidden agenda. Bob Goff says, instead of dwelling where someone has been (in terms of their life story) tell them where they're going, that is a powerful thing. Yes, being positive won't make you're life perfect and everything hard go away, but it's way better than a "negative" alternative.
In the last few weeks I came across an article on Facebook about this 6 year-old girl who was born with her heart outside her body, and what she had to say about it was inspiring and has popped in my mind many times. She says, "I know why I have a heart outside, because Jesus wants to show that He can make special things like me (here's the article if you want to read Warning: graphic images if you are squeamish Special things like me)." It made me think, God created each and every one of us special and unique no matter what. You are special whether you have a disability, cancer, disease, are a nerd, jock, cheerleader, musician, genius, popular, unpopular, an addict, divorced, widowed, grandparent, single parent, broke, fill in the __________. Don't measure yourself and others through the world's eyes but through the Lords. You are worth more than gold and are a child of the One True King.
Here are two songs by some of my favorite Christian artists who speak to this message. I'm linking videos and linking them on iTunes (Just click on song titles) =)
Gold- Britt Nicole
Hello My Name is - Matthew West
So relating this back to a shooting star. We are all incredibly unique and special like a shooting star, and we should get so excited when we get to meet and interact with other humans- where we are made in the Lord's image- so much cooler than a meteor. But we love the excitement of shooting stars, so let's love like the Lord, and be shooting stars of love to all those around us (in others words, bless others and tell them why they are special and who they're turning into)
Thank you and God Bless!!! Be a shooting star today!!!
Love- Jalynn =)
